What’s interesting in the news today?
Open thread, with a few to start things off.
1. This should make healthcare sooo much easier…. 🙄
From TheWeeklyStandard “Ever considered suicide by jellyfish? Have you ended up in the hospital after being injured during the forced landing of your spacecraft? Or been hurt when you were sucked into the engine of an airplane or when your horse-drawn carriage collided with a trolley?”
“But should any of these unfortunate injuries befall you after October 1, 2014, your doctor, courtesy of the federal government, will have a code to record it. On that date, the United States is scheduled to implement a new system for recording injuries, medical diagnoses, and inpatient procedures called ICD-10—the 10th version of the International Classification of Diseases propagated by the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. So these exotic injuries, codeless for so many years, will henceforth be known, respectively, as T63622A (Toxic effect of contact with other jellyfish, intentional self-harm, initial encounter), V9542XA (Forced landing of spacecraft injuring occupant, initial encounter), V9733XA (Sucked into jet engine, initial encounter), and V80731A (Occupant of animal-drawn vehicle injured in collision with streetcar, initial encounter).
The coming changes are vast. The number of codes will explode—from 17,000 under the current system to 155,000 under the new one, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
The transition to ICD-10 was planned long before Congress passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010. But Obama administration officials say it is a critical part of the coming reforms. “ICD-10 is the foundation for health care reform,” said Jeff Hinson, a CMS regional administrator, in a conference call about ICD-10 for providers in Colorado.”
138,000 new codes is sure to streamline things. 🙄
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2. Good. A little bi-partisan common sense. Having an NAACP lawyer in charge of this division was a bad idea.
From RollCall “Seven Senate Democrats joined Republicans to block President Barack Obama’s pick of Debo P. Adegbile to lead the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division amid a controversy over his legal defense of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.”
“Democrats Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Chris Coons of Delaware, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and John Walsh of Montana all voted no. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., also voted no in order to preserve his right to reconsider the vote. If Adegbile had mustered just two more votes plus Reid, Vice President Joseph Biden was on hand to cast a possible tie-breaking vote.”
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3. She did it again. Time for a contempt citation.
From TheDailyMail “Former IRS official Lois Lerner refused for a second time on Wednesday to testify about her role in a scheme to target conservative organizations that applied for tax-exempt status during President Barack Obama’s first term in office. Lerner risks arrest if she is found in contempt of Congress.
The House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee ruled on June 21, 2013 that Lerner, formerly in charge of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations office, waived her right to invoke the Fifth Amendment during a May 22 hearing when she insisted in a lengthy opening statement that she had done nothing wrong.
Wednesday’s continuation of that hearing was a brief affair, with Oversight Committee Chairman Republican Rep. Darrell Issa adjourning it after Lerner cited the Fifth amendment again and refused to answer questions.”
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4. Did he know? Of course he did. And do you really think the DoJ will do anything about it? Of course they won’t.
From HotAir “If you missed the morning post on this topic, the short version is that the CIA’s Inspector General has called for a Justice Department probe into alleged CIA snooping on a Senate Intelligence Committee (SSCI) investigation into Bush-era interrogation and detention activities by the agency. Now a letter written by a Democratic Senator to Barack Obama this week suggests that the President knew of the snooping before it went public today (via Glenn Reynolds):
“A leading US senator has said that President Obama knew of an “unprecedented action” taken by the CIA against the Senate intelligence committee, which has apparently prompted an inspector general’s inquiry at Langley.”
“As you are aware, the CIA has recently taken unprecedented action against the committee in relation to the internal CIA review and I find these actions to be incredibly troubling for the Committee’s oversight powers and for our democracy,” Udall wrote to Obama on Tuesday.”
“Independent observers were unaware of a precedent for the CIA spying on the congressional committees established in the 1970s to check abuses by the intelligence agencies.” That’s because such spying is illegal. I wonder who else, inside and outside the various branches of government, was being similarly spied upon. And what was done with the information learned. (Bumped, because this seems big.)”
Sure it’s big, but do you really think the press will pursue it? I have zero confidence in that.
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5. Another unlawful ObamaCare delay. I’m sure Hillary is pleased. This attempt to provide cover to Dems will drop the other shoe just as she seeks the presidency.
From TheWashingtonExaminer “The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it would allow insurers to issue until October 2016 health plans that do not meet Obamacare regulations, pushing back another Affordable Care Act deadline well past November’s midterms.
Facing the prospect of another wave of cancellation notices this fall, the administration took even further action to mitigate the blowback from President Obama’s broken promise that all Americans could keep their health care plans under Obamacare.
The Department of Health and Human Services had already given insurers the option of continuing those plans facing cancellation through 2014, and on Wednesday said those policies could remain in effect an additional two years.”
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Wandering Views 
#1. It all seems silly to you but to the bureaucracy it makes perfect sense.
a. Remember, I said that the primary mission of a bureaucracy is to grow.
b. A means of doing that is a system, consisting partly of unique jargon, among other things, that no one else understands.
c. Therefore, no one else can do the job they do and you need them.t d
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This is just a human-interest story related to #1 and I hope it isn’t betraying any company secrets. We support the online learning management system for Cigna. They contracted with a third party to provide links to training courses on how to code under ICD-10. Part of my job was to test that the connection from Cigna’s system to this third party works properly and to do so, I had to launch a bunch of the courses. They were very boring (except for some gross details) and since they wouldn’t provide us with an answer key, I had to pay attention to them and retake them several times to get the right answers to provide for the Cigna testers, who had to test after I was done. There are 391 of them and I only launched a handful, so didn’t encounter any of these odd-ball ones. Let me know if you need to know how to code something, though – I’m sure I could find out for you. 🙂
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There is hope for America;
http://www.thenation.com/blog/178717/bernie-sanders-i-am-prepared-run-president-united-states#
The situation in Ukraine is getting interesting — the same snipers shot at both sides, the new government has members of the far right party occupying important posts, questions about Chevron and gas fracking have been raised, and Russia Today faces problems from its own staff.
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Bernie Sanders for Yankee President! Ted Cruz for Confederate President!
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